(41) Bush has flip-flopped on whether restrictions on 527s are necessary and appropriate.
FLIP: Bush opposes restrictions on 527s: "I also have reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue advertising [in McCain Feingold], which restrains the speech of a wide variety of groups on issues of public import." [President Bush, 3/27/02]
FLOP: Bush says 527s bad for system: "I don't think we ought to have 527s. I can't be more plain about it ¼¼I think they're bad for the system. That's why I signed the bill, McCain-Feingold." [President Bush, 8/23/04]
Secondary source: "President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief" ( September 2, 2004, Updated)
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263(42) Bush has flip-flopped on whether Medical Records should remain private.
FLIP: Bush says medical records must remain private: "I believe that we must protect...the right of every American to have confidence that his or her personal medical records will remain private." [President Bush, 4/12/01]
FLOP: Bush says patients' histories are not confidential: The Justice Department...asserts that patients "no longer possess a reasonable expectation that their histories will remain completely confidential." [BusinessWeek, 4/30/04]
Secondary source: "President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief" ( September 2, 2004, Updated)
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263(43) Bush has flip-flopped on whether timelines for dictators are appropriate.
FLIP: Bush sets timeline for Saddam: "If Iraq does not accept the terms within a week of passage or fails to disclose required information within 30 days, the resolution authorizes 'all necessary means' to force compliance--in other words, a military attack." [LA Times, 10/3/02]
FLOP: Bush says he's against timelines: "I don't think you give timelines to dictators." [President Bush, 8/27/04]
Secondary source: "President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief" ( September 2, 2004, Updated)
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263).(44) Bush has flip-flopped on the Great Lakes:
FLIP: Bush wants to divert great lakes: "Even though experts say 'diverting any water from the Great Lakes region sets a bad precedent' Bush 'said he wants to talk to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chréétien about piping water to parched states in the west and southwest.'–– [AP, 7/19/01]
FLOP: Bush says he'll never divert Great Lakes: "We've got to use our resources wisely, like water. It starts with keeping the Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes Basin...My position is clear: We're never going to allow diversion of Great Lakes water." [President Bush, 8/16/04]
Secondary source: "President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief" ( September 2, 2004, Updated)
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=118263(45) Bush flip-flopped about who created the "Mission Accomplished" banner and what its significance was.
FLIP: May 2, 2003: Bush is flown to the U.S.S. Lincoln aircraft carrier, dressed in a flight suit, and then proceeds to prance around the deck. Above him, the tower was adorned with a big sign that read, "Mission Accomplished." Declares a premature victory in Iraq, in the process revealing how little planning he has done for the Iraq occupation and how unrealistic his assumptions are about that occupation.
FLOP: October 28, 2003: Six months after he spoke on an aircraft carrier deck with the death toll rising in Iraq and reality on the ground looking increasing chaotic, Bush (at a press conference) claimed that the administration had nothing to do with the banner being hung up on the aircraft carrier and said that the Navy called for it, and that it was hung up to mark the accomplishment of the ship's mission, not the U.S. mission in Iraq. At a news conference, Bush claimed that the "Mission Accomplished" sign "was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished."
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said at the time: "The mission for the sailors and crew on board the ship was accomplished. There are some continuing objectives we have on the security front, on the reconstruction front, on the political front."
FLIP: October 29, 2003: the administration acknowledged that it was the White House who created the banner. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, asked by reporters about the incident, called it "one of the most significant embarrassments of the entire Iraq experience so far. As he noted, "we've lost more lives since (Bush) declared victory than we lost prior to the time we declared victory. And this latest fabrication is yet another illustration of their (the Republican administration's) unwillingness to except reality. The administration "said that the Navy called for it, and that was a fabrication because they then later acknowledged that it was the White House who created the banner."
(46) Bush Flip-Flopped on arsenic standards.
FLIP: March 2001: Bush Administration rollback of drinking water standards for arsenic threatens American families. Scientists have shown that arsenic can cause several types of cancer, and any further delay in reducing levels in drinking water places millions of Americans at risk. The United States adopted a 50 ppb standard in 1942 before arsenic was known to cause cancer. The EPA had worked for a decade on establishing the new, 10-parts-per-billion standard. Congress had directed the agency to establish a new standard, and it had authorized $2.5 million a year for studies from 1997 through 2000. A 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) had concluded that the existing 50-ppb standard "could easily" result in a 1-in-100 cancer risk and had recommended that acceptable levels be lowered "as promptly as possible." EPA policy-makers had thought that a 3-ppb standard would have been justified by the science, yet they took cost considerations into account and went for the less stringent 10 ppb. After years of scientific studies, a thorough analysis of the costs to communities, and a mandate by Congress to develop a new standard, the Clinton Administration issued a new 10 ppb drinking water standard for arsenic in January 2001, the same level as the European Union and the World Health Organization.
The Bush administration walked away from this approach. It said in March 2001 that it intended to withdraw new drinking water standards designed to protect the public from arsenic pollution. This rash move could have threatened the health of 13 million Americans whose drinking water has elevated levels of arsenic.
(Sources: www.democrats.senate.gov/~dpc/pubs/107-1-110.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/arsenic.cfm
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0322-04.htmFLOP: in response to widespread public outcry about Bush's weakening of the arsenic standards in drinking water, Bush ultimately reversed himself and agreed to impose the tougher, more protective Clinton standards on arsenic in drinking water.
(47) Bush Flip-flopped about manufacturing job loss and his "manufacturing czar."
FLIP-FLOP: The administration has proposed creating a 'manufacturing czar' to try and help out the hardest-hit sector of the U.S. economy. Then, they didn't appoint anyone for months. Then, they finally announced that they've chosen Jason Raimondo to fill the job (which turns out not to be a new job after all). At the same time, the president is in Ohio, denouncing Democrats as 'economic isolationists' for their opposition to outsourcing. Then it turns out that Raimondo's company had shifted jobs abroad and, under attack, Bush withdraws his nomination.
Source: Matthew Yglesias, "A Day of Flip Flops," The American Prospect, March 12, 2004.
(48) Bush said we must not appease terrorists, then lifted trade sanctions on Pakistan, which pardoned its official who sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
(49) Bush Flip-flopped and Broke His 2000 Promises to Reform and Strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and to Not Raid the Social Security Trust Fund.
FLIP: In his August 3, 2000 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Bush pledged that "[w]e will strengthen Social Security and Medicare for the greatest generation and for generations to come." He also vowed to put Medicare on "firm financial ground." About social security he said: Social Security, he said, "has been called the third rail of American politics, the one you're not supposed to touch because it might shock you. But if you don't touch it, you cannot fix it. And I intend to fix it." Bush made an unequivocal pledge not to raid the Social Security trust fund to pay for deficits in other parts of the federal budget. “We're going to set aside all the payroll taxes for one thing, Social Security," Bush said in a stump speech four days before the presidential election.
FLOP: Four years later, Social Security is untouched and unfixed. And, with the government going from budget surplus to deficit, Bush has retreated from his promise not to spend the Social Security surplus. Bush has pulled more than $350 billion out of Social Security surpluses to pay for discretionary government spending. Overall prospects for the future look even bleaker. With record deficits replacing record surpluses and the Baby Boom generation nearing retirement age, the current Social Security surpluses are expected to join the rest of the federal government in a bath of red ink. Bush's drug law wound up costing double what Bush projected and Medicare's chief accountant, Richard Foster, was warned that he would lose his job if he told Congress and the public the true costs of the drug bill prior to passage. While the Medicare legislation made nods toward structural changes in the program, it did little to address the program's long-term solvency or to control increasing costs. Call these broken promises or flip flops- its your choice!
Sources:
1) Washington Post Thursday, September 2, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54556-2004Sep1.html2) CNN Transcript of Bush's 2000 acceptance speech at the RNC:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/republican/transcripts/bush.html(50) Bush flip-flopped and broke his 2000 campaign pledge on the uninsured.
The 2000 Bush campaign faulted Clinton for an expansion in the rolls of the uninsured, to 43 million, and said, "Bush will reverse this trend by making health insurance affordable for hardworking low-income families." But that did not happen, and the number of uninsured continued to grow -- by about 5 million during Bush's presidency -- along with health care costs.
Source: Washington Post Thursday, September 2, 2004; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54556-2004Sep1.html